After years of teasing, Square Enix announced last night that the next big Dragon Quest will be out in Japan on July 29. What’s fascinating about Dragon Quest XI isn’t just that it’s got a PS4/3DS special bundle. It’s that you can play the game in one of three different aesthetic styles.

On PS4, Dragon Quest XI will have high-fidelity 3D models (the pretty ones in the GIF above). On 3DS, you’ll be able to swap between two different styles: cel-shaded and an old-school, 16-bit look. You can see both of those in the above GIF as well. It’s an unusual, fascinating way to approach a series that has always bridged the new- and old-schools.

Square Enix has also announced DQXI for Switch, so presumably that version is coming later. Hopefully it adds an entirely new fourth graphical style, just for kicks. New trailer here:

It’ll be interesting to see how the Western release is handled, if it ever actually happens. (2024?) In recent years, Nintendo has been publishing the North American and European versions of the Dragon Quest games on 3DS and DS, but it’s likely they won’t publish a PS4 game. Will Nintendo bring over the 3DS version and let Square Enix publish Dragon Quest XI on PS4? Or will we only get one version in the West? STAY TUNED.